Mariners rally twice to beat Cardinals behind season-high 19 hits

ST. LOUIS – This game had a little bit of everything from just about everyone, and the biggest contribution came from the one guy who needed it the most.

Leo Rivas, mired in a 5-for-44 funk, delivered a bases-loaded single in the top of the ninth inning to drive in the winning runs in the Mariners’ wild 11-9 come-from-behind victory over the Cardinals on Saturday afternoon at Busch Stadium.

“Amazing. Amazing,” said Rivas, the 5-foot-7, 150-pound Venezuelan infielder known affectionately as “Papa” around the club. “I feel like I’ve been hitting the ball good the last couple days but right at ’em. And to have that one (fall) in a good situation like that is like – oooof – a relief for me.”

It was the same feeling for many inside the visitors’ clubhouse postgame in what had to be the feel-good win of the season for the offense.

After several weeks of murky production, the Mariners’ bats broke through on a warm afternoon with their best showing of the year – 11 runs on 19 hits, both season highs, with three homers and four stolen bases.

Julio Rodríguez, Will Wilson and Cole Young all homered, and the Mariners (13-15) rallied from a 7-4 deficit in the third inning and rallied again after falling behind 9-7 in the seventh inning.

“Wow, can’t say enough about the effort today,” M’s manager Dan Wilson said, adding: “(This is) what we’ve been waiting for.”

Rivas’ go-ahead single came against St. Louis closer Riley O’Brien, the Shorewood High School graduate and former M’s reliever who hadn’t allowed a run in his first 13 appearances of the season. O’Brien threw a well-located 99.5-mph sinker on the outer edge, and Rivas sent it up the middle for a soft line-drive single.

“We were all, like, the most hyped I’ve seen in a while,” Rodríguez said.

“It was really cool for him in a big moment for us.”

The Cardinals made a pitching change after Rivas’ hit, and during the break Rivas went back to the Mariners dugout, where he was swarmed by teammates and coaches.

“Just to see the dugout erupt on him – they were just so pumped for him,” Dan Wilson said. “That’s what this team is all about. They love each other, and knowing that ‘Papa’ came through there, it just made everyone feel good.”

Dan Wilson unloaded his bench and got at least one hit from all nine starters and 12 of the 13 position players used.

Dominic Canzone and Connor Joe came off the bench and had clutch pinch-hit singles.

Canzone drove in Young from second base to tie the score in the sixth inning, and Joe had a pinch-hit single in the eighth inning to drive in Garver and Young to tie the score again, at 9-9.

“Our guys, we don’t panic,” Dan Wilson said. “We just continue to put together good at-bats, try to crawl our way back in the game. And that’s what they did.”

Mitch Garver was robbed of what would have been the Mariners’ fourth homer by Cardinals left fielder Nathan Church in the sixth inning.

That was, incredibly, the fifth time a Mariners hitter has been robbed of a homer in the first 28 games. Angels right fielder Jo Adell robbed Cal Raleigh, Josh Naylor and J.P. Crawford on April 4 (in a 1-0 Angels win), and San Diego center fielder Jackson Merrill robbed Rodríguez on April 15.

Church arguably had the best game of his career on Saturday. He hit a homer off Mariners starter Bryan Woo in the second inning, stole a homer from Garver in the sixth and then homered again off Cooper Criswell in the seventh, a two-run shot to give St. Louis a 9-7 lead.

In the first inning, Rodríguez hit a two-run blast way out to left field off St. Louis left-hander Matthew Liberatore to give the M’s a 2-0 lead. It was his second homer of the season.

The Mariners’ 2-3-4 hitters continued their recent resurgence; each had multiple hits Saturday. Rodríguez was 3-for-6 with a homer, two RBIs, two runs and one steal; Raleigh was 2-for-5 with one run; and Naylor was 2-for-5 with two steals.

Will Wilson, with his first swing as a Mariner, hit his first major-league homer in the second inning, a two-run shot out to left field to score Garver and give the M’s a 4-2 lead. Will Wilson was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma on Monday when the Mariners placed third baseman Brendan Donovan, an All-Star with the Cardinals last year, on the 10-day injured list.

Young reached base four times, coming up a triple short of the cycle. He hit his third homer of the season in the fourth inning off Liberatore, and then followed with a 408-foot double off the top of the wall in straightaway center field, just missing another homer by inches.

The Cardinals roughed up Woo, who allowed seven runs and four home runs, both matching his career highs, in just three innings.

Physically, Woo said he felt fine. He was asked if he might have been tipping his pitches Saturday and he said that was something he would review in film study.

Woo came into Saturday as one of four starting pitchers in the majors this season who hadn’t allowed a home run through his first five starts.

“I sucked today, and the offense picked me up, and that’s baseball,” Woo said. “You know, it happens. But I can’t say enough about just , the relentless effort of just keep chipping away … and they just kept going. So nothing but credit and applause and thank you to the offense.”

José A. Ferrer and Cooper Criswell each covered two innings out of the M’s bullpen, and Matt Brash and Andrés Muñoz each pitched a scoreless inning – both working on back-to-back days – to close out the Mariners’ first road series win of the season.